40:54 MS-hi question.
40:55 man-Just let me finish this and then we can talk, briefly

40:57 MS-yes, certainly

40:58 fx-loud noise

41:01 man-now this is your computer. Now where is the gentleman? He should know his baggage is gone. IS this, is this three things? Yes, OK

41:10 fx-moving things

41:19 man-now this is what I want to know first what is the purpose, so how much flying time is required and how much fuel should I take. That's what my requirement is. Otherwise it'll take time because I have to tell the gentleman

41:35 MS-- yeah

41:35 SAN (?)-- So we'll have that discussion in there.

41:37 MS-- OK

41:42 man-how many pas- people are going wi

41:44 man- four

41:46 man-what all equipment are you going to carry

41:49 man-if full, you will have equipment equaling to the passenger's weight more

41:54 EA-I am one of the 4. This is my equipment. The other 3 are not here.

42:00 man-[laughing] That's OK, but the equipment, I was talking about the weight of the equipment

42:02 EA-and Ravi

42:04 man-That's what I've got to calculate about the fuel and other things

42:48 MS-I don't know , no its not, [hard to make out talk about weight and planes]

42:58 EA-It looks like there's only 2 headsets

43:03 MS-There's three back there, and plug ins

43:05 EA-There are? There's plug ins?

43:07 SAN?-We were just going to have a briefing with the pilot, do you want to set up till then?

43:11 MS-Well

43:12 EA-We'd rather be here. Figuring this out.

43:15 MS-I need to ask him, if we can ask in a nice way

43:17 EA-Can you help ask him about this.

43:20 MS-Can I ask you a question now

43:21 men in unison-yes, oh yes, certainly

43:23 MS-I'm sorry to rush you.

43:24 men-no, no

43:25 MS-We want to plug in and record the conversation of them mapping the area with whatever they're doing, are those plugs we can just plug into then, or

43:33 man-for what?

43:34 MS-uh, for audio recording

43:35 EA-Instead of wearing the headphone and listening to what's being said, we want to record what's being said.

43:41 man-the pilot. No. By whom?

43:43 MS-um. The passengers?

43:44 EA-Whoever's¿ They're voice activated headsets, yes?

43:46 man-No. I have only two. One is for me, and one, any of you can use it. Yeah.

43:52 MS-And then you can't plug in the back?

43:56 MS and EA together-OK.

43:57 pilot-but its only between me and one person who your team leader, yeah?

43:59 MS-That'll work.

44:00 EA-Fine, but we wanna record that, so, OK?

44:03 pilot-OK, fine.

44:04 MS-So you have intercom jacks

44:06 pilot-I have. Either you can use it from there, the left one, that's one connected, the other two are not connected. Or even you can pull it back from there and it can be used, that's not a problem.

44:19 EA and MS-OK, that's great.

44:21 MS-Before you take off would I be able to test just to make sure it worked?

44:24 pilot-yes, yes, we can do that.

44:25 MS-Ok, great.

44:26 [hard to hear as Michael sets up]

44:33 SAN?-You are staying out here or coming in for the briefing?

44:38 EA-I'd rather have you check this out

44:39 MS-yeah, that's fine. I don't think I can check it out without him.

44:44 EA-I don't either. So let's check it out before we go to the meeting, and then we'll test it when we get back.

45:49 man-so, did, uh, Ravi get a chance to brief you or should we maybe do it here? Would this be a good place?

45:55 man-no, no, no briefing at all

45:57 pilot-this would be a good place to answer questions and then have you give us some suggestions. Ummm. Here.

46:15 SAN OK, so what we want to fly the coastline roughly from um, well, were here, so lets say, this is fine, starting from, lets say starting from this old Dutch fort, this place, or here is fine, and then fly the coast up to about Panama,

46:37 man-Panama?

46:38 SAN-Panama

46: 39 another man-[unintelligible]

46:41 SAN-Or here, that's fine

46:42 man-Or we can do a little bit more

46:43 SAN-a little bit out of the park would be fine.

46:44 man-ok, yeah, ok fine.

46:45 man-listen, listen Sanjayan, on the furthest most point here, is Mala Mala (?) so I think we should take them there.

46:52 SAN-lets do that on the way back. Yeah, lets just do this, because I want to do one place carefully first, which is the place I know, and then we have the image of what we're looking for, and we can do as much as we want. And we've got to number it in this way, so we can do this, and then on the way back we can hit anything we missed. And what we'd like, what we're trying to do here is we're trying to map the extent of inundation in certain kinds of habitats and we've gone on the ground and seen what that looks like, of course, seeing it from the air, we hope we'll be able to identify, but at least for the first time, it'll take a little bit of time. These places where I've put a mark, are place where I expect there to be inundation, usually because there's a bay , for example this is a place where we went and spent two days walking around the extent of it. The challenge for you, might not be a challenge, but is going to be this, in a place like this, the water might have come a little bit this way, or have crossed the dune here, and come this way, now you can see the brown where the grass 48:04

48:04 pilot-yeah, yeah, I know, yes, yes, its totally dead vegetation

48:09 SAN-right, right, right, and not only in the tree zone, but also in areas that are, like, plains. Like in the grass areas here. But the inundation wont necessarily be in a nice this is the sea, won't be in a nice square patch. It might be sort of like this, and what the challenge is going to be in places where there is extensive inundation, like here, here, here, a few others up the coast, is to try and actually fly along that flight line, and we'll be continuously recording on his laptop and on two GPSs at the same time.

48:41 pilot-a tracked recording eh? You're doing that? OK fine.

48:44 SAN-And there's a way we'd like to do it and if it doesn't, we can try two ways. We can go to the place we know first, and try it, what we'd like to do is we'd like to have me, you're sitting on the left hand side,

48:58 pilot-No, I'm sitting on the right hand side.

49:00 SAN-Oh, OK.

49:01 pilot-you'll be on the left hand side

49:02 SAN-Well, which way is it easier for you to turn? Because, it..

49:04 pilot-any way

49:05 SAN-well, no, [laughs] Well, we can switch so it doesn't matter.

49:09 pilot-OK

49:10 SAN - Well, the idea, our idea was that, you know

49:15 pilot-I go on the edge of those inundations and

49:16 SAN-yes,

49:18 pilot-OK, I'll do right hand side turns all

49:20 SAN-would that be easier? I mean when you do this, which is the way you'd like to, it doesn't matter for us, OK.

49:29 pilot-any side

49:30 SAN-Ok, cause you being able to see is actually more important than me being able to see

49:31 pilot-yeah, yeah, ok

49:33 SAN-SO if you, whichever one, so lets say we're going to, lets say there's an inundation here, like this, so you'll be flying the coast like this, and if I'm on the left, then I can call out where I'd like you to do a time map inundation, because some of these areas, there's going to be no damage so we can cruise along, and lets say we pass here and I say, oh, there's an inundation there.

49:54 pilot-I've seen this area about 20 times.

49:56 SAN-Great. So if you make it, if you make a left hand OK, so if we miss anything, then tell us.

50:00 pilot-you want me to do left hand?

50:02 SAN-an anti-clockwise turn, because that will put me on the side that you're turning. And this piece, when you do it, what sort of, roughly what speed is comfortable to do it at? Being realistic about time and everything

50:16 pilot-I, I can't do¿ I can come down to forty-five to fifty knots, that's around, lets see, 70 miles, forty knots, that should be a safer speed, because we are fully loaded, with all our passengers, with all our cameras, with everything,

50:32 SAN-is that OK?

50:33 new man-it has to be

50:35 pilot-you know something Sanjayan? Its verrrry slow.

50:35 men-[everyone speaks at once]

50:43 pilot-When you see its slow, because I'm flying at 500 you'll find things going very fast [claps] you come to another 200 you'll find trees zipping past you, yeah?

50:53 SAN-at what altitude will you¿

50:54 pilot-I'll do at 500 feet, that'll be safer.

50:56 SAN-OK.

50:58 SAN-The only reason is because the GPS units are, have a lag. So they have to catch up

50:03 man-Noooooo, this GPS shouldn't have a lag at all. This is, yeah, this just doesn't have, yeah 2-7-6. Its uh, immediate recording. If you put it on have you put it on, uhhhh, is it aviation or road?

51:17 man-Marine, its marine and road.

51:19 man (pilot?)-So have you put it on a track record?

51:21 SAN and man in unison-Yeah

51:24 pilot?-Then wherever you are going its blocking it. You come back, you run it on assimilation mode, you pick up co-ordinates of each point with the arrow.

51:30 SAN-Yeah, that's exactly what we are going to do.

51:32 pilot-this GPS, no problems

51:33 SAN-and then we are going to map out the extent of the inundations.

51:35 pilot-yes, this will give you exact map on that area.

51:37 SAN-yeah, brilliant

51:40 SAN-And if we end up missing anything, that you've seen in your multiple flights, let us know. And will I be able to speak to you?

51:47 pilot-One of you can speak to me. And I suggest only one of me should speak to you [sic] even if I would have had more, because otherwise its all confusing, everyone adds more.

51:56 EA that's fine

51:57 SAN-I'll speak to you. Umm. On the way back, if we miss something, we might have to take a quick look. And if we come back, depending on the time, we might want to go to this part.

52:09 Pilot-yeah, there is two things. Time and fuel. Because I am carrying fuel for more than sufficient what you told me, earlier, what was given to me, I have got the fuel on board, I have told them, um, there may be a reason that we have got to come back and land and then take fuel and do this and come back. Now here, to what point do you,

52:29 SAN-just to Kirinda(?)

52:31 pilot-kirinda OK. There hardly any damage. Only in Kirinda.

52:35 SAN-Well its this piece actually

52:37 lots of men-south of kirinda, that east of here now

52:38 SAN-Sorry, sorry, sorry, South of Kirinda, sorry.

52:41 pilot-Its east of Kirinda, this is Bundala, Bundala,

52:44 pilot-Yes, there is a little bit of damage, its here in this area

52:49 SAN-OK

52:50 man w/san-OK

52:51 SAN-So when we take off, we'll do, you know, we'll go north from here.

52:54 pilot-OK, fine.
52:55 SAN-And um, I just have to make sure that the first place, you know, that I know what it is, because otherwise,

53:00 pilot-it is the hotel, this is the place where the hotel has been washed away.

53:04 SAN-Exactly. After that I can follow.

53:06 pilot-but this one is far deep, its here

53:07 SAN-exactly

53:08 pilot-actually its right on the edge of this and all around here.

53:38: pilot (?)-Yes, we started off actually, mostly, were media, NGOs, and uh, yes, most of these, NGOs and media. In fact, I was the first one who went and we took the photographs of the east coast and uh, uh, southern coast, for television, the same evening which was sent out all over the world. 54:03

54:05 EA-Well you've been busy I bet.

54:06 pilot-yeah, very busy, all the helicopters have been very very busy. Yeah, that's right.

54:10 EA-You say you're the only one private

54:12 pilot-there's only private helicopters

54:13 EA-All over Sri Lanka?

54:14 pilot-yeah. I, I

54:16 EA-phew. That's good for you. Good for you, huh?

54:19 pilot-I best, I better go

54:20 MS-Yeah, sure

54:23 EA-I'm confused, man.

54:35 ambi-static, people talking, footsteps

54:37 MS-I know, I know

54:39 EA-Ok, don't worry about recording, go up there and worry about us plugging in. OK?

54:45 ambi-loud footsteps

54:47 EA-Thank you

54:48 MS-Yeah

54:50EA-I just don't want like taking off and we haven't been able to figure it out.

54:58 EA-Ok, I'm over modulating if I reach the arrow, right? Probably?

55:02 MS-Can I, can I see it over here?

55:04 EA-Look

55:05 MS-The arrow, yes.

55:06 EA-So I don't want it to go past the first part of the arrow, right?

55:09 MS-right

55:10 EA-yeah, exactly. OK, yeah.

55:12 MS-So let me scream, OK

55:13 EA-What?

55:14 MS-I'm gonna scream [screams] Can you hear me OK like that?

55:20 pilot-it will be very quiet.

55:21 MS-very quiet? You have a quiet helicopter?

55:24 pilot-yes, it will be quiet in the helicopter. The helicopter will be shouting more than you are.

55:31 pilot-how are you going to decide which camera you are going to use? So many cameras like that. You'll be more confused or the camera will be confused. Just step em up. If you want you can keep it open, but if you keep it open you are going to pick up more wind noise from outside with the mic. Keep it closed yeah? Keep it closed. Otherwise the mic is going to pick up a lot of noise.